Quiptic N° 613 by Arachne

Several of the clues required some thought to work out the wordplay; in all this Quiptic took me longer to solve than today’s Rufus.

Across
1.	Reflective waterproof for each person in tent (6)
	CAMPER	A charade of CAM, a reversal (‘reflective’) of MAC (‘waterproof’) + PER (‘for each’).
4.	A non-drinker yearned to be in a relationship (8)
	ATTACHED	A charade of ‘a’ + TT (‘non-drinker’) + ACHED (‘yearned’).
9.	Mattress entirely devoured by puppy? (6)
	PALLET	An envelope (devoured by’) of ALL (‘entirely’) in PET (‘puppy’, with the question mark indicating that ‘puppy’ is an example of a pet, not a definition).
10.	Ambassador’s mad plot involved invasion by Italy (8)
	DIPLOMAT	An envelope (‘invasion’) of I (‘Italy’ IVR) in DPLOMAT, an anagram (‘involved’) of ‘mad plot’.
11.	Ordinary sort of pudding (5-3-6)
	BREAD-AND-BUTTER	Double definition.
13.	Shifty cleaner hid light fitting (10)
	CHANDELIER	An anagram (‘shifty’) of ‘cleaner hid’. I got this on the assumption that the ‘cleaner’ was CHAR, which left me with a rather strange envelope.
14.	May perhaps be targeted regularly (4)
	TREE	Alternate letters (‘regularly’) of ‘TaRgEtEd’. The may is another name for the hawthorn tree.
16.	Operate on me at 11? (4)
	TEAM	An anagram (‘operate on’, vocative) of ‘me at’. An eleven would be a team in cricket or football, say.
18.	Moggy is chasing terrified young chicken (7,3)
	SCAREDY CAT	A charade of SCARED (‘terrified’) + Y (‘young’) + CAT (‘Moggy’).
21.	Revolutionary hero’s broadcast affecting people of all classes (6,3,5)
	ACROSS THE BOARD	An anagram (‘revolutionary’) of ‘heros broadcast’.
23.	Drops brickie’s apparatus, being careless (8)
	SLIPSHOD	A charade of SLIPS (‘drops’, which seems a little loose ot me) + HOD (‘brickies apparatus’).
24.	Polish or Nordic, we hear (6)
	FINISH	A homophone (‘we hear’) of FINNISH (‘Nordic’). Definition: polish, verb with a short o.
25.	Shamefaced, like Jacob? (8)
	SHEEPISH	Double definition; Jacob is a breed of sheep, named after the biblical character (Genesis 30:40). Jacob worked for his uncle Laban for seven years (as a shepherd apparently) in order to win his daughter Rachael; but Laban tricked him by substituting his elder daughter Leah on the wedding night. Perhaps this made Jacob feel rather sheepish, but he agreed to work another seven years to take Rachael as his second wife. Jacob evidently was a good shepherd, because Laban was reluctant to give up his services even after fourteen years, and offered him as payment all the piebald and spotted sheep and goats in the flock (the Jacob sheep is piebald). Jacob knew much about breeding animals, and ensured that the best lambs were born piebald. Thus when he finally left Laban he had the larger and better flock. Trickery ran in the family.
26.	Bleak and cold, like the Lake District? (6)
	CHILLY	A charade of C (‘cold’) + HILLY (‘like the lake district’). Only sometimes an &lit.

	Down
1.	Reproduce material for publication (4)
	COPY	Double definition.
2.	Frenchman singing about “the French disease” (7)
	MALARIA	An envelope (‘about’) of LA (‘the French’) in M (Monsieur, ‘Frenchman’) + ARIA (‘singing’).
3.	Look at Charlie Murray — he’s handsome! (3,5)
	EYE CANDY	A charade of EYE (‘look at’) + C (‘Charlie’) + ANDY (‘Murray’). This expression also came up in Paul’s crossword of Friday last.
5.	Did he regret being tortured in tough interrogation? (5,6)
	THIRD DEGREE	An anagram (‘being tortured’) of ‘did he regret’.
6.	A large yob using maximum effort (3-3)
	ALL-OUT	A charade of ‘a’ + L (‘large’) + LOUT (‘yob’).
7.	Rodent infestation in Birmingham’s terrible (7)
	HAMSTER	Hidden answer (‘infestation in’, although the former word is there mainly for the surface) in ‘BirmingHAMS TERrible’.
8.	Stop man getting cleaner (9)
	DETERGENT	A charade of DETER (‘stop’) + GENT (‘man’).
12.	Boy has spots — lots! (11)
	ALLOCATIONS	A charade of AL (‘boy’) + LOCATIONS (‘spots’).
13.	Purging girl and sibling with trapped gas (9)
	CATHARSIS	An envelope (‘with trapped’) of AR (argon, chemical symbol, ‘gas’) in CATH (‘girl’) + SIS (‘sibling’).
15.	Simon had prepared lecture (8)
	ADMONISH	An anagram (‘prepared’) of ‘Simon had’.
17.	Voice calling for SAS? (7)
	AIRLINE	A charade of AIR (‘voice’) + LINE (‘calling’). Among the various possibilities SAS may stand for Scandanavian Airlines System.
19.	Warm drink (7)
	CORDIAL	Double definition.
20.	Consumes drink after exercise (4,2)
	USES UP	A charade of USE (‘exercise’, as in exercising a right) + SUP (‘drink’).
22.	Reason to consume English dairy product (4)
	WHEY	An envelope (‘to consume’) of E (‘English’) in WHY (‘reason’).

8 comments on “Quiptic N° 613 by Arachne”

Thanks, Peter.

Good Quiptic, I thought. Plenty of anagrams to get you going (THIRD DEGREE was clever), and then some inventive clueing elsewhere: I liked CATHARSIS and SCAREDY CAT in particular. I couldn’t see how AIRLINE worked, so thanks for that, and also for the Jacob story. I remembered the ladder and the coat of many colours but had forgotten about the sheep bit.

I too had a ‘hmmm’ moment with ‘slips’ and ‘drops’ but I think on reflection it’s okay: ‘The soap slipped out of her hand’, ‘The soap dropped out of her hand’.

Thank you to Arachne.

Many thanks PeterO – you are a busy bee this morning. Do you ever get any sleep?

25a left me feeling very sheepish as I’d never heard the story.

Also, many thanks to the Spider Lady. Yes – it was tougher than today’s Cryptic.

Thanks, Arachne; horses for courses but I thought this was easier than the Cryptic with lots of anagrams.

Good blog, PeterO; I like seeing the clues for reference. A PALLET for me is a wooden thingy for lifting stuff, so I wouldn’t fancy sleeping on that. SCAREDY-CAT was allegedly coined by Dorothy Parker in 1933 – ‘Cats are intelligent enough to retreat when threatened by a larger or better armed enemy and other potentially harmful situations; this gives us the British “scaredy cat” and the American “fraidy cat”.’

Thank you so much to PeterO for the blog, and to Kathryn’s Dad, Bryan and Robi for your kind comments. I do hope you were all at least briefly detained and entertained. If this had been a cryptic I fear that the poor old Albigensians would have had an outing at 13dn, so I’ve probably been protected from myself. As for PALLET, my dear old dad tells me he slept on a few in a bygone age, and I fear they were little more comfortable than those wooden things that people today seem to want to buy for some unknown reason.
Love, hugs, and toodlepip,
Arachne x

Thank you, Arachne, for gracing our blog – and for another splendid crossword. I doubt if you would have been struck by lightning for 13D; as far as I can tell, catharsis and Cathars (Albigensians, for those who have not looked it up) are connected only etymologically, deriving independently from the Greek ???????, pure or clean. Incidentally, PALLET as in forklift comes by a winding road from Latin pala, a spade, while PALLET, mattress, is a different animal, coming from the French paille, straw, which might give you a marginally less uncomfortable night than a wooden plank.

Ah well, the Greek characters made it into the preview, but not the final version. Anyhow, the transliteration is katharos.

PeterO,
As a keen etymologist myself I was thrlled and fascinated to read your comments at 5 above, and pallet<pala was new to me. Thanks!
Arachne

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